The White House Project

December 11, 2008

As regular readers know the first initiative of 51 Percent has raised met its funding goal: to finance a press release making it clear that hundreds, possibly thousands, of men and women expect their President-elect to set a standard for zero-tolerance of misogynistic conduct. I will be writing more about misogyny and its relationship to the need to ensure that women constitute 51% in every sector of civic and political society. But given the generosity of readers of this blog with regard to the goal of funding the press release, I decided to round off the funding for a donation in the name of this blog and its readership to The White House Project, an organization committed to increasing women's presence in politics, the corporate world, and as media experts. Thank you to the readers of this blog who by supporting this blog enabled me to make a contribution at the "Visionary Level". In these troubled economic times, every person who has made any contribution to the causes I champion or to any worthy cause at all deserves the gratitude of all of us. Donating money is not possible for some people, and it is right now nerve-wracking for many. For those who can and do, all of us are grateful for the generosity and the courage.

Meanwhile, arrangements for the press release are under way. Stay tuned.

Now, about that job bank. During this election season I have met hundreds of people, some of whom read this blog regularly. If you have a service or product you would like to offer for a fellow reader to purchase or you are a reader seeking a particular skill or service, drop me a comment. I will list information about g-rated goods and services available or sought on a separate dedicated page that I will add to the the site for this purpose. Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for any transactions that follows from pooling this information; I do not warranty the goods or services; nor guarantee payment. I simply believe that one way to help each other through these difficult economic times is to build our own small marketplace. I do not know if this experiment will work, but why not try?

December 09, 2008

Just in from The White House Project (a quick read for you, while I finish the complaint and related materials concerning Governor Blagojevich,
who just got out on bond.)

What Year Of The Woman?

Have
you heard the rumor that 2008 is being referred to as the newest "year
of the woman?" We don't know about you, but we take issue with this
distinction. As White House Project President and Founder Marie Wilson
writes in her latest blog,
"Frankly, when I hear the current exclamations over women's electoral
gains in 2008, I am shocked at the apparently low expectations for
where women should be politically."

While we were proud of the gains made by our Vote, Run, Lead
alumnae on Election Day, in this so-called "Year of the Woman, v. 2.0,"
only four seats were netted by women in Congress--three in the House
and four in the Senate. Unless a woman is appointed to fill Senator
Clinton's seat, we will backslide to the same 16% of women-held Senate
seats that we started with before the election. At the moment, we've
got a mere 8 women serving as governors across this country--likely to
become 9 when Lt. Gov. Diane Denish replaces Governor Bill Richardson
as he moves to Commerce, but still well below equal representation. At this rate, we won't see parity between women and men in Congress until 2063.

There
are a number of innovations that could move our democracy to a place of
true representation--and some of them begin with you. Here's how you
can make a tangible difference in the life our nation:

1. Think of a woman who would make a great addition to the city council, school board, or state legislature.2. Pick up the phone, dial her number, and encourage her to run for office.3. Send her a personal e-cardinviting her to run.4. SupportThe White House Project as we equip women with the tools they need to run for office and win.

December 07, 2008

I have pledged to use readers' contributions plus $100 of my own money to donate at least $1000 to The White House Project by January 20, 2009.

Update: 7 December 2008 9:32 p.m.. eastern: $800 collected. Only $200 to go to hit the minimum donation attempted. Even $5 dollars will help. Upon collecting $1000.00 I will make the first donation on behalf of readers of Heidi Li's Potpourri. Anything beyond, I will donate on January 20, 2009.

A regular reader of this blog has just written to me a most wonderful, extraordinary message:

"Every year we make contributions for
something we deem worthwhile, something that caught our attention. The
misogyny and sexism in this election cycle has quite shocked me. So we need to
work on this however we can. To me it's not so much getting a woman into
the Oval Office as much as empowering women in general, encouraging and
helping them to go into politics, to dare to bring female intelligence and
emotional competence into play, with it find creative,
wise solutions to problems and hopefully less cockiness. I believe the
pressure has to come from the grassroots, almost no one gives up power
voluntarily. [...]

"Could I perhaps be a virtual member of your group?

"Anyway, my friend and I are committed to support a
movement with $ 51/month during 2009. We want it to be for empowerment for woman
in politics and working to reduce misogyny."

I have already received one installment from this reader's as a contribution to this blog. One of the goals I set for myself after this political year was to use what I had learned as a fundraiser to carry on raising funds for the causes and institutions that push for justice for all. With women representing 51% of our population but certainly not occupying 51% of positions of power, justice cries out for a correction.

The White House Project does aim to put a woman in the Oval Office, but as the generous reader quoted above advocates, it does not aim simply to do this. It has a number of initiatives aimed at "empowering woman in general, encouraging and
helping them to go into politics, to dare to bring female intelligence and
emotional competence into play, with it find creative,
wise solutions to problems and hopefully less cockiness." Below, I highlight a few. For fuller information go to this page at the website for The White House Project.

I intend to use this reader's generous contributions toward this blog to make it possible for me to support the White House Project. I hereby pledge to raise at least $1000 toward this goal by January 20, 2009. Counting my benefactor's commitment, I'm halfway there. I will put in $100 of my own funds. This leaves $350 $300 as of 11:52 eastern on Sunday, December 7, t to hit at least $1000 to contribute. By pooling our resources and acting together we become a set of salt-marchers on behalf of the cause of 51% placement of women in positions of power. Men and women welcome. The button below is for donating specifically for the drive to raise at least $1000 for The White House Project by January 20, 2009. Any amount welcome - as I learned in 2008, it is amazing what $5 at a time can accomplish. Let's march together.

Beginning this effort makes me look forward to January 20, 2009, a symbolic day for donating to The White House Project.

After the jump some information about some of The White House Project's initiatives:

November 28, 2008

Before Lyndon Baines Johnson became President he was a critic of the northeastern establishment, a son of Texas, and a devotee of bipartisanship. Barack Obama has been in political life for a much briefer time than Lyndon Johnson was before Johnson was elected to the presidency (after he first ascended to the office upon John F. Kennedy's death). Yet the parallels to LBJ are there. Prior to winning against John McCain on November 4, President-elect Obama critiqued the Washington establishment (including Democrats who had spent more time in office there than he ever has); both during and after the general election, he has operated from Chicago, thereby emphasizing his adopted mid-western mantle; during the primaries and the general election he campaigned as critic of partisanship. Now President-elect Obama is joining hands across the aisle in an unprecedented manner, reappointing a sitting Cabinet member of the other Party's outgoing President. Not just any member of the Bush 2 team, either. Mr. Obama has selected Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense
and Gates has agreed to the appointment.

Seems a hawkish move. Very in keeping with the Lyndon Johnson style. LBJ represented the right wing of the Democratic Party when it came to foreign policy. During the mid-1960s, Johnson escalated the Vietnam War, a believer in the need to contain Communism by force. Ultimately, Johnson's hawkishness lost him the support of rank and file Democrats, leading him to decide against seeking the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 1968.

Do not get me wrong. Lyndon Johnson did some admirable and amazing things as President - including making sure that the Civil Rights Act of 1965 got passed and signed into law. So being like Lyndon Johnson is not necessarily a bad thing, at least from an overall liberal point of view. Let us note, however, that President-elect Obama has not made any bold Great Society-like moves yet. He has created a new presidential Economic Recovery Advisory Board, but this is not a New Deal or Great Society descendant. It is modeled on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, created by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. No President's Commission on Women seems forthcoming; although, actually, now I have my sights set on a President's Advisory Board on the Status of Women in America. Really, I do.

POSTSCRIPT

Hillary Rodham Clinton is the most genuinely liberal or progressive person President-elect Obama has reportedly asked to join his Cabinet. Senator Clinton: supporter of the view that womens rights are human rights; proponent of genuinely universal healthcare, early advocate of direct relief to mortgage holders. Whether Senator Obama's offer is made official or is accepted remains to be seen. Wherever Senator Clinton ends up come January she will be to the left of those around her. I hope she influences whoever she can to move her way.

As the winter holidays arrive, we will be giving thanks and giving gifts. The gift-giving will be, for many, curtailed due to financial circumstances. But there is a way that even those on a tight budget can give gifts that will be received with great thanks by two organizations, one focused on American women's accomplishments here and now, the other dedicated to educating and celebrating American women's achievements in the past. I think of this pair of institutions as the yin and yang of making sure that women count. Both organizations accept donations and one can join either as a member. With a bit of creativity, you can give as little as five dollars to either organization, print out the receipt (cross out the amount of money donated if you like) and decorate it or wrap it up and give it to a friend (maybe somebody with whom you are forming an SWWH group). This year, give the people you love a donation in honor of that love and in support of two groups who are helping to stamp out misogyny and sexism in favor celebration and empowerment of women.

When millions of people combine financial forces, change happens. For an interesting read on the general topic, with specific reference to cause organizations mutually supporting one another, see this article, "Money Talks", by Eric L. Smith.

One can hardly blame people for feeling this way. But, I think it is too early to conclude that we will not see a woman elected president in the next 24 years. So, if you think you have another quarter century in you, not only might you see a woman elected president, you can help make it happen. It won't happen because it will be easy to accomplish. And it It won't happen because of hope. It will happen because of hard work in the face of long odds.

It will happen because we challenge ourselves to make it happen' to make it a national priority. We must recognize that electing a woman to the Presidency of the United States of America is a way of affirming the 51 per cent of the American population consisting of women, a way of affirming that Americans can understand human rights well enough to appreciate that women's rights are human rights, a way of affirming the great American heritage in promoting the rights of all persons based on ever more inclusive ideas of who counts as a rights-bearing person.

Before you stop reading because you decide this is just going to be a bit of cockeyed optimism or mere exhortation, I will name two concrete ways Americans can challenge themselves to make a woman President within the next 25 years.

I. First, learn about The White House Project. Don't be put off by the bit on the home page congratulating Obama-Biden. There will be some ideas and aspects of the site you will like more than others, but spend some time at The White House Project, and you will see that this group understands that to put a woman in the White House we, as a nation, are going to have to face down the pervasive misogyny and sexism rampant in the culture and never more in evidence than right now. (In May, Marie Cocco wrote about the phenomenon; now with the talk of Senator Clinton becoming Secretary of State, the public face of misogyny has surged to the forefront again.) Some great pages from the website are here (this page shows that The White House Project understands exactly what we are up against), as does this one. Want to think about leading a political life? Look here. After you investigate, sign up to participate in the group - costs nothing but keeps you involved. Then, use the group's form to get some friends to sign up.

II. Second, set up your own support/action group, dedicated to challenging yourself and other people to put a woman in the Oval Office by 2034. I think of such a group as a "Send a Woman to the White House" [SWWH] club or partnership. It might start with you and just one other person. But as with exercise, it is easier to stay motivated toward a goal if you do so with some friends and companions. Here are some things SWWH clubs can do:

meet once a week for at least an hour; use the hour to focus on political actions you are taking or want to take; then use the next hour to see how progress is going.

create an investment fund - decide with other members what you can raise per month, and how you can raise it, and pick an organization that is dedicated to women's rights and particularly their representation as President of the United States of America.

think of fun and social ways to educate yourself (book group on women's history or building presidential campaigns); walk-a-thons to raise money to donate to women's rights/interest groups.

let other people know you have set up an SWWH group - and stay in communication with other groups.

take small but direct actions: if you see misogynistic or sexist advertising, boycott the product or service and write the company in question; if your local bookstore or library does not have an extensive collection of nonfiction about women in politics or women's history, speak to the manager and ask for a better selection; when somebody uses misogynistic or sexist language, tell him or her that you object.

invite a woman you would like to know better or whose work you would to know more about to come meet with your SWWH; she does not have to be famous and the event does not have to be fancy; it can be a coffee for three or an open house for 30.

Yesterday was the anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. This sorry date did not cause me to dwell on the horror and sadness of life cut too short. Instead, it put me in mind of one of the most admirable things President Kennedy did for this country. He challenged Americans to meet a seemingly impossible challenge: they did. In 1961, President Kennedy addressed the United States Congress urging long-term and continuous funding and commitment to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. President Kennedy did not live to see that goal met in 1969, but the goal would not have been met if he had not issued the Congress and, in another famous addresswell worth reading and hearing, the American people to invest resources and energy in hitting the mark. So we know that we as a country can attain goals that, when first presented, seem outrageously unreachable.

We may not have a President who will challenge us to put a woman in the Oval Office by 2034, but as American citizens we can issue the challenge to ourselves and to one another. If enough of us start now, we Americans can put a woman in the Oval Office by 2034, just as 40 years ago Americans put a man on the moon.

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do
the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,
because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our
energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing
to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to
win, and the others, too.”

-John F. Kennedy, Rice University, 1963

My own ambition and commitment: to start an SWWH group and to help anybody else who would like to start one. You can reach me through this blog for ideas about books to read, groups that might be worth supporting, specific projects you might want to try.